Biden-Palin Debate Blogging Starts

I can’t put as much attention to the debate as I’d like to because I am still in my office. I have put some links on my main page to more active bloggers tonight.

But from what I have seen Gov. Sarah Palin is struggling with some answers. She just had a difficult time talking about energy independence and global warming.

Sen. Joe Biden has looked smoothed and confident in the early going.

Palin called out Wall Street’s “greed” for giving out loans for “$300,000” homes when the homeowner “can only afford $100,000.” Comparing the practice to predatory lending. At one point Palin says paying taxes in not patriotic. Patriotism is getting government out of the way.

Biden tosses in a reference to “a bridge to nowhere,” calling all the disagreements over taxes — who raised them and who didn’t — bogus.

Later, Palin brought up the point that Biden had once said he would run on a ticket with McCain and that Obama is not ready to be president. She snapped at Biden when he mentioned Obama’s vote to cut off funding for the troops — “That’s another story,” she says.

Biden pointed out that McCain has also voted against funding for the troops.

Palin, trying to distance herself from George Bush, said, “There have been huge blunders throughout this administration.”

Ifill reminds both candidates that they would be a heartbeat from the presidency. Both respond by saying, God forbid, it would be a horrible event. I’m not quite sure what Ifill wanted out of that question, other than to make a point that McCain is older than Obama?

Both candidates try to be more of a supporter of Israel than the other.

I’m not sure how many people just won their office pool as Palin used the line “Say it isn’t so, Joe?”

Thank you for sticking with me during the night, I had a surprisingly high number of people joining me. Time to go over to MSNBC to see how Biden won, or to FOX to see how Palin won, your choice.

About Jeff Pijanowski

I spent about 30 years as a newspaper editor, mostly at Newsday on Long Island, where I served in various positions ranging from copy editor to a three-year stint as a news editor. I also spent time as the wire editor at the Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise, an assistant city editor at the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph and as the editor-in-chief at Central Penn Business Journal. I am a graduate of two (yes, two) buyouts from two different news organizations. After my second buyout, I decided to change professions, and now I am a senior manager at a nonprofit organization. But I still have a keen interest in politics and the media, and I like to keep in touch with my inner-journalist self.